Capsid Shuffling

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Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are a class of single stranded DNA viruses that are not able to replicate without a helper virus. This makes them a perfect tool for the iGEM community, as no special safety requirements have to be fulfilled to work with a non-replication virus, because it is non-pathogenic. Because of their wide range of tropism they are used for transgene delivery in a variety of gene therapeutic approaches.

In the class of AAVs, there are several serotypes that have been isolated from humans or non-human primates, the first and most well-known of them being AAV2. AAV serotypes are defined as naturally evolved variants of AAV that do not react to the same antibodies.